The present invention relates in general to message services between telephone devices and in particular to using the number of the calling party for transmitting a message in a situation that the receiving party is busy.
When using a telephone, there is often a situation that the receiving party can't answer the incoming call. In case of wire connected telephones this is in most cases because the user is not in the neighbourhood of his/her telephone. As the radio connected telephones are becoming common, the telephone is more often continuously carried along by the user, but for example in the middle of a meeting it is not possible to answer it without disturbing the course of the meeting. As a known solution in those situations there is used a call answering machine that can be a separate device bought by the user or can be located at a telephone exchange apparatus operated by a company or a teleoperator. Typical of call answering machines is that they reproduce a short prerecorded notice to the calling party and after that give the calling party an opportunity to leave a message that will be stored into the answering machine and can be played back later by the receiving party.
In certain situations the receiving party can, however, wish that different callers would be served in different ways when he/she is not able to answer him/herself. If the receiving party is, for example, having a long lunch with his fellow employees, it is to be recommended that the reply message informs, when his wife is calling, that he is attending an important work meeting. But if the caller is his own boss, the explanation of having a meeting won't work but the answering equipment should inform that the receiving party is “on business”. Another situation requiring a different treatment according to the calling party is a prolonged meeting, after which the receiving party has appointed another meeting. In that case the person with whom the latter appointment has been made can call and wonder what's keeping him/her. The answering equipment should be able to tell him/her, how long the meeting is still going to last. Calls from other callers can be ignored or they can be routed to a usual reply service, because the ending time of the meeting does not make any difference to them.
The present mobile phones have, almost without exception, a display, by means of which the receiving party, when the telephone rings, can see the telephone number of the calling party connected to a digital exchange. In fast situations it is preferable that the receiving party can still at that moment decide, which kind of a reply service will be applied to the calling party in question.
Known from the patent publication EP-588,101 (Goldman & Wu, ROLM Company) there is a procedure, where the number identification of the calling party is used. This function is known in the art and called ANI (Automatic Number Identification) or CLI (Caller Line Identity). In the solution proposed by the reference publication, the telephone number of the calling party or a corresponding identity code is transmitted through the telephone network to that exchange apparatus, where the telephone reply service of the receiving party is operating. The receiving user has beforehand entered to the reply service as key commands a list of those telephone numbers for which he/she wishes to have a special treatment. When a call is coming, the ANI code transferred with the call is compared by the apparatus to the list of the stored numbers and if the number is on the list, certain special services are offered to the calling party. The publication proposes, e.g., that the message given by this caller can receive a priority treatment according to which this message will be played back prior to others when the receiver starts to playback the answering equipment. Alternatively, the answering equipment can reproduce a different message for those calling parties, the numbers of which are on the list. Further, a function is proposed, according to which the receiving user can afterwards initiate a callback to those persons who are on the list and have called the answering equipment, by depressing a single key.
The method proposed by the reference publication has, however, drawbacks associated with the call answering equipment itself. As the exchange apparatus, in view of billing, treats the activation of the call answering equipment in the same way as the usual answering of the call, the calling party must pay at least a local call charge, although he/she is connected only to the answering equipment. Especially for those who are calling from a slot machine this is often infuriating. The operation of a call answering equipment requires a two-way connection, ie. transmission of speech in both directions in the network, by which the network capacity is reserved. Also storing of voice messages takes a lot of memory space in digital systems. Further, a call answering machine located in the exchange requires for remote using through a terminal device that the receiving party gets in advance into a telecommunication with the exchange and gives a group of key commands, that can be difficult to know by heart. Also, these commands can't be given when the telephone is already alarming for an incoming call, so that it is not possible to react in fast situations according to the number of the calling party, but only to decide whether the call will be answered by oneself or given to the reply service.
Known from the publication “Ericsson Review”, p. 145, No. 4, Stockholm 1988 there is an exchange apparatus BCS 150, the telephone answering function of which can give instead of a voice reply a text message, if the telephone device of the calling party is equipped with suitable receiver and display means for producing text messages. In that case there is no need to reserve a telephone line for a two-way speech connection. In addition, the calling party can leave to the exchange an automatic callback request that does not reserve as much memory as a voice message to be stored. The apparatus is, however, still used by the exchange, whereby the controlling of the telephone reply service must be performed in advance, for which the receiving party is required to know the key commands. In addition, the receiving party has no other way to express through the call answering equipment some certain term but by storing a new reply message concerning the term in question.
Known from the patent publication WO-90/03700 there is much the same kind of an exchange apparatus, where the reply message can be in voice or text form. There the messages sent by a calling party are stored into a memory of a computer, whereby, in case they are in text form, they can be transmitted through the display of the receiving party or printed on paper by a printer. Also this system is used by the exchange and has no services concerning any fixed time limits.
Known from the patent publication EP-564,756 there is a selective answering station that based on the identity code of the caller checks if the calling party is on a certain list of acceptable callers. If not, the call is not answered. If the identity code of the calling party is on the list, the answering station decides, which of the receiving parties connected thereto will take the call. Also, certain calling parties can receive a priority treatment so that the calls given by these calling parties will be connected prior to other calls. No telephone reply service changing according to the number of the calling party and no fixed-term mechanisms are described in this publication.